Dian Fossey: Animal Rights Activist and Protector of Mountain Gorillas
tHe trimates Because of the close genetic relationships between humans chimpanzees gorillas and orangutans Louis Leakey believed that much could be learned about human evolution by studying the behavior of great apes in their natural habitats To that end in 1958 he commissioned Jane Goodall to study chimpanzees in Tanganyika now Tanzania In 1966 he hired Dian Fossey to observe mountain gorillas in the nations of Congo and Rwanda And in 1971 he sponsored Birute Galdikas in a study of orangutans in Borneo These three female researchers became known as Leakey’s Ladies Leakey’s Angels or in a pun on primate which is a grouping of mammals that includes humans and apes the Trimates Gorilla Expert During her years in Africa Dian did more than observe gorillas She also recognized that human activities threatened their survival as a species She shared these facts of gorilla life with the world Over the years Dian wrote four books and seven scientific papers about mountain gorilla behavior She discovered they were curious affectionate creatures that loved to socialize and play A mountain gorilla family in Africa As Dian spent more time with mountain gorillas she found them to be in her words dignified highly social gentle giants with individual personalities and strong family relationships 10
She learned much about what gorillas eat how they spend their days how they interact with each other and what they say to each other For more than a year she recorded gorillas vocalizations and discovered they make 16 or 17 clear and distinct sounds each with its own meaning Dian and the students who worked with her also kept counts of the gorilla population in the Rwandan jungle Through the 1970s and 1980s these counts showed that gorilla numbers were drastically declining That’s because their habitat was being turned into farmland and local people were killing them often by accident and sometimes on purpose Dian predicted that if nothing changed mountain gorillas would be extinct before the end of the 20th century By this time Dian was acknowledged as the world’s leading mountain gorilla expert so when she shared her prediction about the gorillas bleak future people listened This led to one of the first coordinated conservation efforts in the world Conservation is the act of preserving protecting and restoring the natural environment including its habitats and wildlife To help save the gentle beasts some of Dian’s colleagues launched education and tourism programs in the Rwandan jungle An aerial photograph of the border of Virunga National Park with fields on one side and woods on the other This photo shows a striking contrast between the impact of cultivated farmland and the conservation of woodland that is home to mountain gorillas and other wildlife 11
Dian on the other hand had her own techniques for protecting gorillas and dealing with the people who threatened them Her sometimes-violent methods terrified the local African people Eventually her tactics became a cause of concern for everyone who knew her At the same time many researchers questioned Dian’s unusual study techniques They felt her approach to her work was unscientific Certainly nobody denied Dian’s significant contributions to gorilla research but as she spent more and more time alone in the jungle even her supporters began to question her abilities and her sanity BorN Free In 1960 Joy wrote a book called Born Free In 1956 in Kenya an Austrian naturalist named Joy Adamson and her husband George took in an orphaned lion cub They named the little one Elsa raised her taught her to fend for herself and released her back into her natural habitat Elsa was the first lioness ever successfully released into the wild She went on to have a litter of cubs but sadly Elsa died from a tick bite at age five It was about her work with African lions in general and with Elsa in particular It became an international bestseller and in 1966 it was made into a movie With her book Joy became the first person to raise awareness of the plight of endangered animals in Africa Not everyone appreciated her work though Joy was murdered by poachers in 1980 12
For Dian though living in the jungle with mountain gorillas was exactly where she wanted to be The gentle playful gorillas were the family she’d never had They accepted her into their midst allowing her to observe them at close range She befriended these gentle giants She communicated with them She also did whatever she had to do to protect them In the end Dian’s passion for her beloved mountain gorillas would be her downfall perhaps not a surprising outcome for someone who even as a child was more at ease with animals than with her own species Dian and a baby gorilla at ease with one another in the forest 13
